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Anaplan vs SAP ERP comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Anaplan
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Business Performance Management (1st), Production Planning (5th), Predictive Analytics (4th)
SAP ERP
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
104
Ranking in other categories
ERP (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

Anaplan and SAP ERP aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Anaplan is designed for Business Performance Management and holds a mindshare of 13.6%, down 16.1% compared to last year.
SAP ERP, on the other hand, focuses on ERP, holds 21.1% mindshare, down 22.6% since last year.
Business Performance Management
ERP
 

Q&A Highlights

NC
Nov 09, 2021
 

Featured Reviews

Antonio Flor - PeerSpot reviewer
Real-time data integration enhances operational efficiency and flexibility
As a client developer and solutions architect, I use Anaplan for building modules and deploying logic end-to-end. I work closely with the business in an agile manner to ensure the model aligns with business needs Anaplan offers flexibility in building different options within the platform. The…
Srinivasan Kuppuswamy - PeerSpot reviewer
The amazing, robust framework with unlimited scalability earns its #1 status
The solution is not ready for the current e-commerce environment. Its was built for large enterprises who need to predictably optimize their human, material, and financial resources. ERP has evolved and businesses are changing. There are not many large corporations. Most are small enterprises with the capabilities of large enterprises through networking and platform integration. Some companies promote products but get things done with other enterprises as a network. Companies do not want to create new capacity but want to leverage existing capacity with innovative products. They do not want to spend resources on duplicating capacity or facilities. I do not think any ERP product is ready to support this environment so ERPs as a whole might end up being used for back-office functions only. It is not easy to evolve an ERP product because its intent is to integrate functions and processes within an organization. Whereas, in the new business model, processes are not limited to one's own enterprise but cut across different enterprises. There is no enterprise solution as this point in time for the current e-commerce environment so companies must integrate with many solutions.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Anaplan's in-memory calculation engine is super-fast compared to the old tools we previously used. You enter the data and everything shows up in one go."
"You don't need to have a programming language to use Anaplan."
"Anaplan's scalability stands out compared to other platforms, especially for scenario planning and what-if analysis."
"The best thing is that it's very intuitive and user-friendly. You don't need coding skills to manipulate the platform."
"The solution scales well."
"I believe Anaplan is a new cloud tool, and from time to time, there's a lot of improvement that the Anaplan company deploys with the system. So, with that improvement, we need to really adapt and know the new system trends."
"It's highly flexible. If you've got a complex environment with complex calculations, you can build that out. So that's a really good positive."
"It's simple to use with a lot of functions."
"I like that SAP ERP is very robust and stable."
"Well-integrated multilingual technology."
"The solution provides a high level of integration."
"SAP ERP's interface is pretty easy nowadays, as it has evolved over time and has been made as user-friendly as a person would like it."
"The solution is quite scalable."
"This product is very scalable and easy to expand."
"They provide a full service."
"It meets our requirements for what we need it to do in the manufacturing industry."
 

Cons

"It would be nice if the solution offered better extensions."
"The price of the solution can improve."
"Automation needs to be built into this solution."
"One area of improvement is conditional formatting. It's not very practical, and you need to specify additional formatting."
"Space and integration are a problem."
"The integration technique should be a little bit easier."
"The dashboard could be better. Because within a dashboard or report, you have to do a lot of scrolling. You need to scroll down because the table doesn't fit in a single view. That's why even the users aren't happy with that kind of user experience. They need to scroll to see all the data, and it could be better if it fits in just one page. That way, you can see everything. In the next release, I want automation that's connected to Anaplan. For example, to load master data from SAP to Anaplan. I don't know if this already exists, but a log where you can see the progress and see if there's an error will also help. It would be better to give you the error message, for example, if there is an error within the automated process importing to Anaplan."
"There are so many business rules to set up in the system that as a business user it's hard to gauge what they're doing and it's possible to get lost."
"The version that we are using lacks in reporting. The reporting feature needs to be constructed more in this product. There can be better scope for mobility. They could include the technical development of reports instead of depending completely on programming. The programming method needs to be easy."
"The product does not update budgeting based on exchange rates which is important for BPM."
"The initial setup of SAP ERP is complex and it took a lot of time."
"More integrations and built-in integrations with other environments and products are needed."
"I would like to see the customization of the reports become easier to work with instead of having technical support have to assist us."
"The warehouse management could be better."
"Implementing SAP ERP can be very costly, particularly for smaller organizations with limited resources."
"The user interface can be more intuitive and user-friendly by having it be more menu-driven, this would be a large benefit."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is expensive."
"Anaplan is a bit pricier compared to its competitors - the license costs about $4,000 per user annually."
"A value-for-money product and a very reasonable price compared to competitors like SAP or IBM."
"The entry-level is anywhere from about $30,000 to $50,000 a year, however, it does go up significantly after that depending on the complexity and how much space you're using."
"The tool’s pricing is reasonable and competitive with other solutions."
"The license is a yearly subscription. There are three licensing tiers: the model builder, planner, and the reporting."
"We are currently using a free workspace license for 90 days. We are satisfied with the price of the solution. There are additional costs if you want more storage, the default limit is 250 GB."
"This is an expensive product and if the price were reduced then it would attract more customers."
"I am not sure. However, extensions cost approximately $100,000 or$200,000."
"I rate the product's price a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap or affordable, and ten is really expensive. The solution is expensive."
"There is a one-time license that is needed to use the solution. The support is what is needed to be renewed annually."
"It could always be cheaper. They don't have a very easy model of licensing, but large entities would get the upper hand in negotiating the license."
"SAP is quite expensive."
"When you have a solution that is stable, reliable, and has a high performance as this solution, the price is going to be expensive. However, when you evaluate the service you are paying for the cost is quite reasonable for this solution."
"Licensing can vary, but for educational institutions, there are often favorable conditions."
"I rate the product's price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive. SAP ERP is a costly tool."
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Answers from the Community

NC
Nov 9, 2021
Nov 9, 2021
There are different aspects of both Anaplan and SAP ERP that I like and dislike. Anaplan improves forecast accuracy and drives up the quality of analytics. Rather than spending all of their time consolidating numbers into one space, employees can reshift their focus to deep-diving into the numbers, which is a huge advantage because it frees them up to do more value-added work instead. I also li...
See 2 answers
JM
Oct 13, 2021
SAP ERP and Anaplan serve different purposes and actually work well together.   Think of SAP ERP focused on the Actuals, while Anaplan models the future. The reason why I’ve seen clients use Anaplan for planning vs. SAP BPC is Anaplan is more flexible and can easily keep up with constant changes in business planning.  While BPC is more of a consolidation tool, with Anaplan you can also have your driver-based models in a system vs. running them offline and only putting the answer into a system.   Therefore, my recommendation is to use both.
Janet Staver - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 9, 2021
There are different aspects of both Anaplan and SAP ERP that I like and dislike. Anaplan improves forecast accuracy and drives up the quality of analytics. Rather than spending all of their time consolidating numbers into one space, employees can reshift their focus to deep-diving into the numbers, which is a huge advantage because it frees them up to do more value-added work instead. I also like that Analplan is a collaborative solution - it makes building out forecasts and modeling data much easier than just using Excel because it is in the cloud and is more structured. Anaplan is also very well connected. For example, data from one use case can be used in other models. Moreso, if a change is made to one model, it will be changed in all other models as well. Although Anaplan requires a slight learning curve and some training, initial setup is fairly easy. And for the times where you have technical questions, I have found that support is adequate. However, Anaplan is quite expensive. Nevertheless, I am very impressed with the stability of the solution and its performance. Not only that, but I am impressed by its ability to scale phenomenally. SAP ERP has been recognized as the best solution in the class of ERP products. In addition, it provides excellent visibility into the details of enterprise resource planning. Like Anaplan, it is very scalable. I think one of the best features SAP ERP has to offer is the claim management. One disadvantage is that you cannot easily create customizations. Also, outside of the SAP for RPA it is required for you to use an additional solution on a platform as a service if you want to extend the solutions. Another downside is that the initial setup is not straightforward and can be quite complex, so you have to be prepared to handle that. Conclusion: Overall, I would give Anaplan a 9 out of 10 rating. Anaplan has many more advantages for me than SAP ERP and since both options are very pricey, Anaplan takes the win because I like that it has so much more to offer.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
31%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Retailer
6%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What are your main use cases for Anaplan?
Anaplan is an industry-leading cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) platform that combines business planning and analytics in a single solution. It is designed to assist organizations...
Is Board better than Anaplan as a Business Intelligence (BI) solution?
We've had several FP&A departments include Anaplan in their analytics discussions, and while BI information IS generated, the focus is generally on compiling input from various sources and simu...
Is Anaplan better than SAP ERP?
There are different aspects of both Anaplan and SAP ERP that I like and dislike. Anaplan improves forecast accuracy and drives up the quality of analytics. Rather than spending all of their time co...
What do you like most about SAP ERP?
The solution has made the most significant impact on our human resources function, specifically in HR operations and HR analytics. One feature of SAP ERP that I found most valuable is its use of co...
What needs improvement with SAP ERP?
There is a need for improvement in the business analytics aspect in financial reporting and also in sales and marketing analytics.
What is your primary use case for SAP ERP?
I am currently working in a group of companies, and we have the SAP HCM module. It is not fully implemented due to cloud issues, but we plan to transition to it. We are also using SAP S4HANA and ha...
 

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Sample Customers

HP, ForeScout, DocuSign, EAT, Pandora, Aviva, Intel Security, Zalora
B&G Manufacturing, Unilever, Life is good Inc., Joy Global Inc., City of Cape Town, Bhopal Municipal, Corporation (BMC), adidas Group, Butcher & Packer Supply Company, Franklin Valve L.P., Evoshield, Prime Meats, a Norsan Group company, EMC Corporation, Varian Medical Systems Inc., FC Bayern Mªnchen AG, AkzoNobel Chemicals B.V., T¾V Rheinland, Pacific Drilling S.A., Fire & Rescue New South Wales, University of Amsterdam, Pa_alon S.A.
Find out what your peers are saying about Anaplan, Oracle, IBM and others in Business Performance Management. Updated: December 2024.
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